US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned each other that an escalation of tensions over Ukraine could rupture relations between the two countries, US and Russian officials said.
But the two leaders appeared set to move forward with further diplomatic engagement following their second call this month.
“He made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Putin told Biden that any sanctions could rupture ties between Russia and the United States and would be a big mistake, the Kremlin said.
But Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia was “pleased” overall with their phone conversation, which he said centered on security guarantees that Moscow wants from the West amid a build-up of Russian forces close to the Ukrainian border.
A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tone “was serious and substantive.”
The call, which was requested by Putin, began at 3:35 p.m. Eastern time (2035 GMT) and ended 50 minutes later, according to US officials.
Troop buildup
Moscow has alarmed the West by massing tens of thousands of troops near its border with Ukraine in the past two months, following its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and its backing of separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia denies planning to attack Ukraine and says it has the right to move its troops on its own soil as it likes.
Biden and Putin had been expected to discuss a range of topics, including not just the tense situation in Europe but also the slow-moving negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Moscow, worried by what it says is the West’s re-arming of Ukraine, has said it wants legally-binding guarantees NATO will not expand further eastwards, and that certain offensive weapons will not be deployed to Ukraine or other neighboring countries.
The leader-level talks came ahead of a Jan. 10 US-Russia security meeting, followed by a Russia-NATO session on Jan. 12, and a broader conference including Moscow, Washington and other European countries slated for Jan. 13.
US concerns have not ebbed in recent weeks, according to a senior Biden administration official, despite a report over the weekend that Russia would be pulling back about 10,000 troops from its border with Ukraine. Other officials said they have seen little evidence to support the idea that Russia is pulling back from the border.
“We are at a moment of crisis and have been for some weeks now given the Russian build-up, and it will take a high level of engagement to address this and to find a path of de-escalation,” said one of the US officials, who declined to be named.
The Biden administration has told Russian officials that they will take swift economic action against Russia and reinforce NATO in the case of an invasion.
But the US president has been pushing direct diplomacy, including one-on-ones with Putin, as an alternative.
Putin has compared the current tensions to the Cold War-era Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Washington regards some of his demands, including restrictions on NATO expansion, as non-starters.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
